Freddie’s Mortgage Portfolio Crawls Upward

November marked another month of expansion for Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolio, which grew again as new business ticked up.

According to Freddie's monthly volume summary, released Monday, the company's total portfolio ended November at an estimated $1.9 trillion, up an annualized 0.4 percent. Year-to-date, the portfolio's growth rate is an average -0.7 percent, the result of six straight months of declines through the year's first half and an additional month of contraction in August.

After slipping in October, purchase and issuance activity picked up again, coming to $29.5 billion, Freddie Mac reported. That was offset by an increase in sales and liquidations, which whittled the portfolio's monthly increase to about $614 million.

In other monthly changes, the unpaid principal balance (UPB) of Freddie Mac's mortgage-related investments portfolio fell by approximately $4.7 billion last month, a negative annualized growth rate of 14.0 percent.

Meanwhile, the company's mortgage-related securities and other guarantee commitments increased at an annualized rate of 3.9 percent.

Single-family refinance loans accounted for $10.7 billion of single-family purchases and issuances in November, accounting for 48 percent of total volume. Relief refinance mortgages made up 17 percent of that amount.

Delinquency rates remained flat for both categories, coming to 1.91 percent for single-family mortgages and 0.03 percent for multifamily loans, according to Freddie Mac.

The company reported 4,518 loan modifications in November, bringing the year-to-date total to 61,781.